A Quick Look at the President-Elect’s Tax Plan for Businesses

14 Nov A Quick Look at the President-Elect’s Tax Plan for Businesses

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States could result in major tax law changes in 2017. Proposed changes spelled out in Trump’s tax reform plan released earlier this year that would affect businesses include:

Reducing the top corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent

Abolishing the corporate alternative minimum tax

Allowing owners of flow-through entities to pay tax on business income at the proposed 15 percent corporate rate rather than their own individual income tax rate, although there seems to be ambiguity on the specifics of how this provision would work

Eliminating the Section 199 deduction, also commonly referred to as the manufacturers’ deduction or the domestic production activities deduction, as well as most other business breaks but, notably, not the research credit

Allowing U.S. companies engaged in manufacturing to choose the full expensing of capital investment or the deductibility of interest paid

Enacting a deemed repatriation of currently deferred foreign profits at a 10 percent tax rate

President-elect Trump’s tax plan is somewhat different from the House Republicans’ plan. With Republicans retaining control of both chambers of Congress, some sort of overhaul of the U.S. tax code is likely. That said, Republicans did not reach the 60 Senate members necessary to become filibuster-proof, which means they may need to compromise on some issues to get their legislation through the Senate.

So, there is still uncertainty as to which specific tax changes will ultimately make it into legislation and be signed into law.

It may make sense to accelerate deductible expenses into 2016 that might not be deductible in 2017 and to defer income to 2017, when it might be subject to a lower tax rate. However, there is some risk to these strategies, given the uncertainty as to exactly what tax law changes will be enacted. Plus no single strategy is right for every business. Please contact us to develop the best year-end strategy for your business.